While relevant and regularly updated online content like blogs, articles, and press releases continue to be crucial components in optimizing your website, there are other highly effective forms of communication that draws in consumer attention to your business.

One of these forms is the infographic, which appeals to the ever-growing crowd of online browsers who connect to more visual methods of learning.

Short for “information graphic,” an infographic is defined as the visual representation of information. Visualization is a powerful tool-the millions spent on creating movie posters to market films is proof of that. But infographics are more than just posters with graphs on it. A well-crafted infographic should be able to convey a complex concept in an easily understood, visually appealing way.

Decidedly, there is a trick to designing a successful infographic, which is why it has become a career option. There are endless lists of what makes an infographic successful vs. just a poster with graphs, but here are a handful of do’s and don’ts that will help you with the basics of designing your own infographic.

DO tell a story. Like a good story, infographics should have clear beginning, middle, and end. Introduce the thesis, problem, or purpose of the infographic at the top, or beginning. Support your thesis with data-this is where well-designed charts and graphs come in. Then, end the infographic with a final conclusion.

DO communicate complex data simply and attractively. If a consumer is just as confused by your infographic as they would be by the list of data it is supposed to represent, then a visual isn’t doing its job. Think about your audience and develop a simple, yet creative way to convey the same information so that the consumer can digest it easier.

DO make social media sharing easy. Social media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook are valuable gateways into the next level of marketing. Designing infographics that can be easily shared through these sites is one of the best ways you can improve the online visibility of your company. So keep them simple and make them attractive-that is the best way to encourage sharing.

DO NOT tell when you can show instead. Writers are taught never to describe through exposition when you can illustrate through character dialogue. Similarly, in an infographic you should never tell when it can be displayed visually instead. That’s the purpose of an infographic after all, is it not?

DO NOT rely on typography too much. A common crutch designers rely on to make information stand out is using alternative typography. While different fonts can be great for highlighting certain data, overusing it can detract from the cohesiveness of the design.

DO NOT use every color you can think of. Rather than make your infographic look like a rainbow exploded on it, use color palettes that complement the message of the visual.

The best rule to follow when developing an infographic is to keep it simple. Successful visual designs take detailed and complicated data and present it in a form that is easily understood by consumers.

Furthermore, answer the questions of purpose, goal, and relevance before you develop an infographic for your website or client.

While there is plenty more that goes into developing a successful infographic, keeping these concepts in mind is a good start.

The biggest challenge for content marketers nowadays is to present complex information to the readers in easy-to-understand and effortless way. One of the best ways to do it is using Infographics or graphical illustrations of data. Infographics have gained huge popularity over the past 5 years which blends information with graphics. It is an amazing marketing strategy that builds brand awareness and increases a company’s credibility. The visual communication also features case study findings and research results to make the content more trustworthy and interesting. Even the most intricate industries have the opportunity to undoubtedly display their strengths with skillfully designed Infographics. Let’s explore some of the proven ways through which Infographics helps a business to expand.

Increases the number of online visitors

When it comes to increasing customer base through digital media such as internet, Infographics is the best choice for small-scale business owners and start ups. Infographics as a content marketing strategy merges both information and statistics which can never go unnoticed by the online audiences. The biggest asset of Infographics is that it can be customized in such a way that it can deliver information effectively to the visitors of different age groups in the internet. Moreover, the visual graphics and images boost engagement.

Bolsters website traffic

Sites that use Infographics as their content marketing strategy have witnessed a 12% average increase in the online traffic. So, it can drive visitors to a website in a very big and significant way. Infographics can also bring in the kind of elusive high-quality link building to boost traffic. Adding back-links in the Infographics is a great strategy to boost more amount of traffic to a site or blog.

Builds to a company’s trustworthiness

Infographics makes a company successful by increasing its credibility. Companies prefer to integrate Infographics with information, statistics, research and case studies in a digital set-up nowadays from reliable sources to establish credibility of their brand. In this way they try to give exposure to their business.

Creates brand awareness

With the help of Infographics, companies can embed their logo, for creating corporate identity, good brand awareness, and telling a nice story about it. When the Infographics goes viral, companies can reap its benefits. But remember, you have to make sure it is visually attractive loaded with convincing information.

Helps a company to reach target audience

To increase company sales and turnovers, it is important to reach the niche market or the target audience and Infographics will help you to achieve exactly that. In this way, you can stay ahead of your competitors in terms of competition and climb the ladder of success more easily in the market segment.

Infographics although being a recent phenomenon has gained a huge popularity in the recent years. If you want to grow your business, it is the perfect way of doing it. It is the ideal content marketing strategy that will surely pave the way for success.

B2B companies are helping to make infographics the fastest-growing content type on the web. According to a recent survey of the B2B Technology Marketing Community on LinkedIn, more than 50 percent of respondents find infographics to be an effective content marketing tactic. There are plenty of good reasons why:

Infographics tell a story. Prospective customers may be interested in hearing about how your company got started. Maybe you’ve got a compelling “Then and Now” story to tell. Through a combination of graphics, data and text, an infographic can tell your story in a concise and engaging manner. It also helps to build brand awareness and position you as a thought leader in your field.

They can explain a complex process simply. Say you’re a service provider in the B2B world. You have a process that clients sometimes find difficult to grasp-a proprietary service delivery or client onboarding process. Whatever the situation, using an infographic to visually depict the process is much more enticing than bombarding clients with a page full of explanatory text (which they probably won’t read anyway).

They showcase vital statistics. You can risk boring your clients with charts, spreadsheets or PPTs filled with written statistics-or you can design an infographic explaining the same thing in a more attractive, user-friendly manner. The best of these infographics combine a series of statistics to create a clearer, more concise argument or conclusion.

If you’re ready to join the infographics bandwagon, keep these tips in mind:

Provide both text and graphics. Your goal is to describe your product or service using both words and graphics. Together, they make for a more visually compelling and informative story.

Make them “viral-friendly.” Infographics are often enthusiastically shared, linked to and mentioned in blogs. To increase the chances of going viral, include social networking buttons, making it easy for people to share your infographic on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. Adding an embed box also enables users to include your infographic in their own blogs or websites.

Let people know about your infographic. Although most infographics are about something else (like your product or service), you can sometimes get buzz going about the infographic itself. Sites like DailyInfographic and Fast Company Infographic of the Day accept submissions. You can also tell the story behind the creation of your infographic on your blog or in an industry press release. (At the same time, of course, you’re including the infographic, thus generating more potential interest.)